Security
by Chair Meow
Summary: The bond that links your true family is not one solely of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. An insight of Tessa's role in Emma Carstairs and Jace Herondale's life. Set after Heavenly Fire and before Lady Midnight. R&R.


XXX ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO CASSANDRA CLARE XXX

Tessa stood in the shadows of one of Los Angeles darkest clubs, her eyes narrowed on the dance floor. She personally hated the crowd for a variety of reasons. The music of a mix of tracks that sounded like drowning cats. Nothing like Beethoven or Bach.

The women dressed as if chains, leather, and latex were the only materials available. And the games these people played…

It had come as a surprised when she'd received the little message on her phone. She hadn't expected to find Emma Carstairs here.

The music playing now, she imagined, was meant to be fun. It sounded more as if meant to cause a riot.

A mix of fury, disbelief, and pure entertainment filled her as she watched a little sprite cut through the dance floor pushing people left and right out of her way. The song was fast-paced rock version of a line dance, Tessa guessed. The dance floor was packed with women and a few men, laughingly following the singer's direction.

Any other person, Clarissa, maybe even Isabelle, Tessa would have been concerned about. But Emma…

At least she wasn't dressed like the other women. She had on dark jeans, combat boots, and a white t-shirt under a black leather jacket. Long, long, blond hair rippled down her back as she put her hand on a man's chest and shoved him backwards. He looked confused as he looked down at the girl yet he let her pass and Tessa let out a sigh of relief.

What in the Angel's name was she doing here?

All these people, aside from being much older, knew the score and knew what they wanted and worse, they knew what the other sex wanted too. This was far worse then Benedict Lightwood's parties.

Emma was by far too young and, despite what she believed, too soft for this kind of place.

Tessa had been standing there for over an hour, hiding in the dark corner, watching for her, trying to watch for those against them.

"Sorry I'm late." Emma was coming up the stairs, three at a time. People instinctively got out of her way. "I'm glad you came."

Tessa raised a brow and hand, waving around their setting. "A sex club?"

"I didn't want to be followed," Emma said as she walked up to the tall table where Tessa was sitting, perched on a stool. "You are like the sun in the middle of a dark sky."

It was probably true. Everyone else around them wore black and reds, yet Tessa Grey was in white and cream. She was getting looks from every direction and a fair share of leers.

"How do you even get in here? You are fifteen, for love's sake," Tessa muttered as a waitress in fishnets and little else walked up to them. Before she could even ask, Tessa was already waving her away.

"And supposedly, I'm also beautiful. Bouncers seem to think that's reason enough to let me in," Emma responded.

It always astounded Tessa how well spoken Emma was. She had an unwavering quality to her, something she'd been born with instead of taught. She saw the world for what it was, all gray zones instead of rose colored.

Emma was a realist. A suffering one.

"I dread asking how often you come here," Tessa muttered.

Emma's grin was unholy. "Demons particularly like this place."

"And you like any place where you can find demons." Tessa sighed. "Where is your parabatai?"

"At the Institute," Emma answered nonchalantly. "Julian doesn't need to know about this."

Tessa sat back and crossed her legs. "You are getting braver and braver, aren't you, little darling? Getting farther and farther from where you are supposed to be."

"You never tell Jace that he has limits," Emma humphed.

Tessa was personally tired of this argument. Emma couldn't be trusted not to bring Jace into the discussion when she wanted to guilt Tessa into agreeing with something. "Jace is on a short enough leash, Emma. Clarissa likes him close to heel. And he's an adult."

"Three years," Emma said, "until I'm an adult."

"Until then, you'd do well to try and stay alive."

It pained her to be so blunt yet nothing else worked with Emma. She was steadfast and strong, relentless to the point she made Jace seem like a kitten.

"You look different since the last time we saw each other." Emma changed her tack, eyes scanning Tessa's face. "Older. Respectable. Like someone's mother."

It was true that she'd changed. Aside from adding another inch to her height, Tessa had also spent a great deal of time in front of a mirror trying to figure out how to look more mature. Her face was thinner, her posture more erect. Her hair was shorter while some wrinkles were starting to show around her mouth.

It had been necessary when Jace had started acting as if he were older than her.

"I'll take that as a complement," Tessa muttered. "You did not spend the last six years demanding I give you space and freedom only to call me now. What's going on, Emma?"

"Wanna go for a walk?" Emma asked looking around the club and perhaps realizing that this was not the place she wanted to be.

Tessa nodded. She slid down from her stool and allowed Emma to lead the way. She was always distrustful of all those near her, keeping people at arms length. Tessa had tried to hug her once, but Emma had frozen and she'd never again tried to repeat the action.

They cut through the crowd to the back door, Emma seemingly very familiar with her surroundings. They stepped out into an alley and Emma turned towards Venice Beach, her footsteps sure.

"I hate this town."

"You could come home with me. To New York. Or we can go to Idris. London. Macau. Or anywhere you'd like to go, Emma." Tessa knew she sounded too hopeful. "I know we haven't always gotten along, but maybe this is fate."

"The Clave would love that. You and I under the same roof just outside of the covenant laws," Emma laughed ruefully. "I can already imagine what the Consul would say."

"You can choose to come with me."

"I can't go anywhere without Julian," Emma reminded her.

The puzzles pieces fell into place at the sound of his name.

With reverence.

The way Jace said 'Clary'.

"His birthday is coming up, isn't it? Have you decided on a gift?"

They were crossing the street into the promenade. The fluorescent lights were on and the boardwalk was still filled with people. Emma stopped to look at the ocean. "We don't usually give gifts."

"But you're thinking of something, aren't you?"

"Dad's pocket watch."

Tessa felt her heart skip a beat. "That's family heirloom."

Emma immediately blushed. She wasn't the kind of girl who blushed. Like Jace, she was the kind of person more likely to drop kick a puppy than blush. "Maybe not."

Tessa shook her head. "I think that's a good idea. It's meant for some one special and who is more special than your parabatai?"

A smile crept up Emma's face and in flash it was gone. She shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortably. "He'd probably like a paint brush set better."

"Emma, you could give him dirt and coming from you he'd think it was as good as gold."

"It's not like that with us!" The girl immediately snapped and Tessa hid her knowing smile behind a serious nod.

"I didn't mean to imply anything. I simply wanted to reassure you that your parabatai would love anything you got for him," Tessa told her.

"Of course." Emma cleared her throat. She fidgeted again. "I made my own pyxis yesterday."

This was not the Emma Tessa had expected to meet. This one was going out of her way to find topics to talk about. "Have you tried it out yet?"

"Saving it for a special occasion."

This time Tessa actually laughed. "I nearly feel bad for the demon who ends up inside that blasted box."

"In case it doesn't work, I'll just kill it."

"I'm sure you will."

They lapsed into silence. Emma found a bench and they sunk into it.

She looked over the black ocean. The sounds of music floating from different homes and corners was nearly enough to mask the sound of the mermaids' song coming from the far distance.

Things here in L.A. were very different from New York.

"How often do you stop and think about the changes?"

"Natural changes?" Tessa asked.

"Progress. Life." Emma scrapped her heel of her boot against the group. "Where things are going?"

Tessa nodded. "Daily. Hourly. Why?"

Emma shrugged. "Ever get the feeling something wicked this way comes?"

Tessa chuckled. "that I have seen war in nearly all decades of my life. Every breath I take comes with the feeling that some bad is about to happen."

Perhaps the answer was not at all what Emma wanted. She paled and for a moment, with the darkest covering them, her blond head and no light to brighten her blue eyes, she looked as silver-made as Jem.

"Sometimes, when I go to sleep I feel this surge inside, like lighting. Like a storm is brewing and we can't see where it's coming from," Emma admitted.

"Is that why you called?"

The blond head bobbed. "Yeah, I guess so."

She crossed her arms over her chest and her jacket rode up. Emma Carstairs never left home without blades strapped to her chest and arms and her steele tucked into the back of her jeans.

"Is there something I can do for you?"

Emma seemed to have lost her tongue. She looked up and down the boardwalk. Unlike with Jace, it was harder for Tessa to interpret Emma's feelings. "Would you'd be here for me if I needed you, right?"

Emma's doubt, her lack of trust, and her never-ending quest for revenge was something Tessa would always blame on herself. If she'd been there for Emma from the very beginning than maybe she wouldn't even have to ask. Emma thought she'd been abandoned when all this time Tessa had never once had a day or moment in which this child had not clouded all of her thoughts.

Her parents' death had been a blow much like Stephen's death had been. It was never easy to lose someone she loved, yet Tessa had allowed the Clave to dictate where Emma would go instead of insisting that Emma's guardianship be given to her.

With Jace, she'd thought him dead along with Celine and Stephen. Her body had ached at the loss, physical ache that had driven her further away from those she loved. She'd thought the last of Will and Cecily's blood lost and mourned them in such a way that she'd been blinded to the world.

This she could correct. Or at least try.

"I would not hesitate, not even for a second, to do for you whatever you need from me, Emma." She meant that sincerely. Once she'd crossed paths with Lilith's son for Jace and she would do so again for Emma if need be.

This relationship wasn't perfect and the Angel knew it would take even more work that her relationship with Jace, yet Tessa loved Emma. Needed to protect her and care for her.

"I guess that's all I needed to hear," Emma muttered. She stood up in a rush and tucked her hands into her pockets. "I should get back to the Institute."

Just like that, Emma was not a vulnerable fifteen year old anymore. She was back to being her brutal self.

"Em?"

She was about to turn but she stopped to look down at Tessa. "Yeah?"

"This storm?"

"Every David needs a Goliath, right?"

That was very true. A Nephilim could never be a true warrior until tested down to his or her very soul. It was the nature of their being, even when Tessa wished it wasn't. "When you need me again, Emma, when this…storm…comes, I'll be here for you."

"Even it challenges everything we know?"

"Even if it burns a hole through the world." She'd never been more serious.

Emma rocked on her heels for a moment, like a little girl. She nodded. "Catch you later, Tessa."

"Do you want me to walk to you back?"

Emma shook her head with a vicious smile. "Why? I'm the scariest thing here."

She started walking away before Tessa could even correct her. She watched the girl disappear down the street and heaved a sigh. "_Mizpah_. The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another."

X

Jace let himself into Tessa's Manhattan loft early the next morning.

She'd changed addresses to be closer to the Institute and he was ever glad for it.

"So I see your trip to that sin-filled, nest of heathens was short lived," he called out as the door slammed behind him. Nothing had changed in Tessa's apartment despite her move, unlike Magnus' apartment that switched décor daily.

His—he was never sure how to refer to her—person, was coming out of her bedroom wrapped in a baggy cream sweater and brown leggings. Tess was his…mentor, his role model, and guardian. She was affectionate and as integral to his life as Clary. Tessa was just short of his guardian angel and a step above a mother.

"As you had expected, she wasn't looking for a heart-to-heart," she informed him as she took the bag he was carrying from her and set it on the coffee table. She opened it and frowned. With her new look, all mature adult with responsibilities, she truly looked motherly. "Was it this? Chocolate cake?"

"Clary said to buy you something comforting," he grinned and then shrugged. "I'm sorry I was right."

"You don't like chocolate any more than I do," she muttered as pulled the cake out regardless and offered him a plastic fork. "Sit down."

He sunk next to her, throwing an arm over her shoulder in the back of the couch.

Things had changed between them over the last six years. The bond was stronger, far more palpable then before. At times he would have sworn that she could sense Tess much like he sensed Clary and that didn't bother him.

He knew her like he knew himself and he hated to see her agonizing over something she couldn't help. "Did she tell you what she wanted?"

Tessa cracked open the box and dug in. For someone who didn't like chocolate, she looked as if this were her only focus now. "Darling, trying to understand what exactly what Emma wanted would as easy as trying to drag all of the Silence Brothers' secret from them."

"Little ingrate," Jace mumbled.

"You've never liked her."

"That's because you love her more than me," he replied. He remembered the very first he'd seen pretty, little, broken Emma Carstairs and drawn the connection between her and Tessa.

"Now is not the time, Jace Herondale, to revert to childish petulance," she said cooly. "I am not in the mood to stroke your ego and reassure you that our bond is as strong as ever."

He grinned at her backbone. "So she is your favorite."

Tessa snorted. "I have no favorites. I love all of you equally."

"But me just a little more than the others." Jace tightened his grip on her and pulled her closer to his side. "She didn't even hint at anything?"

"She has a bad feeling. About the future," Tessa said as she sunk against him. "I want to be optimistic, Jace, and think that all our troubles are over but I can't help feeling like she's on to something."

"That's the problem with you, you know?"

"Pardon me?" She lifted on sculpted eyebrow. That was not a friendly look.

He lifted his hands in self-defense. "Hold on there, Mother Bear," he laughed. "What I mean is, you come around, Tess, and you just charge at our problems."

"Well, excuse me, for trying to protect you from an evil half-demon bent on destroying all Shadowhunters and thousands of years worth of Nephilim history," she replied.

"You are excused, _darling_," he told her. One a serious note, he added, "I just want you to understand that some days just the knowledge that you will be there if we need you is enough."

"That's it? Tell her that I'm one portal away is enough?"

"If she ever really needed anything, Tess, I'd be here to help you help her," Jace reassured her.

"Help me help her?"

"She means a lot to you. Therefore, she means a lot to me. We can be her security net, even if she doesn't want us, we can be there for her. Besides, Herondales will always be ready to aid Carstairs no matter how annoying they are," he promised Tessa with a smile. He leaned in, kissed her forehead and stood up. "Gotta go. Clave business."

"Will you be back for dinner?"

He nodded. "Clary and I were planning on coming around after seven. Is that still good?"

"I'll let make sure Isabelle is here on time."

"Do you want us to bring anything else?" He reached the door and looked back at her. She'd drawn her knees up on the couch in a move that nothing Tessa-like. For a moment she lost grip of her power and her body reverted back to its teenage state. She looked…bewildered.

"Nothing." He nodded and opened the door. "Jace?"

He'd been expecting that. In fact, he could already guess what she was going to say. It brought a big smile to his face. "Yes?"

"I'm proud of the man you are. Thank you for saying the words I needed to hear."

He smiled at her over his shoulder. "You've done a wonderful job with me. I'm sure we can do the same for Emma, even if we have to beat it into her."

X

X

I was feeling inspired after so many comments on Dark Artifices started popping up. According to Cassie Clare, Lady Midnight is set five years after the end of Heavenly Fire. Jace, Clary, and the rest of the gang would now be adults in the early twenties. Hopefully responsible and mature, but with Jace, it's always hard to tell. I have this story setting place before the beginning of Lady Midnight, with Emma starting to feel that sense of doom that will inevitably be the premise of her story. Thank you and enjoy.

Love Always,

Chair


End file.
